Seeker Small Groups

Why God Allows Pain?

I received this story this morning that provides a simple way of addressing the question of why God allows suffering. This is probably one of the biggest questions about God, and it warrants continued study and examination, along with tremendous compassion and mercy to those that are suffering. So I don't want to minimize the magnitude of the topic, but thought it gives us a glimpse of the answer:

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things." The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber.  "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside." "Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me." "Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

I don't know who wrote this story, as it was sent with no attribute. But it makes a good point. 2Chr. 7:14 says "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Or another verse, Psa. 119:36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word." - Mary

Francis Collins and The Language of God

A few weeks ago, I had heard that Francis Collins, director of the National human Genome Research Institute and author of the book "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief" was going to be at Stanford University on Feb. 5. I heard from several of you who had the opportunity to hear him speak, as well as bring some of your friends that are not Christians. Here are some of the comments about this event:

"As a scientist, I have grappled with many of the issues Francis discussed, and it was invigorating to listen to ‘a greater mind than mine’ on bridging the gap between science and religion. After all, everything is God’s. Science and mathematics derive from God’s creation construct. One can not consider science without acknowledging that God ‘owns’ it all!" - Bob

"It was Super Tuesday all right. 2300 people came out, according to campus security. Overflow rooms overflowed. Dr. Collins was funny, humble, brilliant, and incisive. The Q&A ended with the question: “I see what you’re saying – how do I take the next step?” Collins said, seek, and know that this is the most important question of your life – having laid out the Gospel and where he found his answer." Pete

“Thank you for inviting me. The talk last night was AWESOME” – PhD Candidate Bio, a seeker

“I just wanted to thank you for organizing the talk last night. I've prayed that it was well received, and seeds were planted. My friends were blown away by the talk.” – recent EE alumna

“As it happened a heavily-bearded physicist was in the seat beside me. We chatted before the lecture began. He wanted to say that he'd read Mere Christianity and found it vacuous… Yet, maybe 1/2 way through Collin's presentation I sensed what might have been a crack in his shell occurring… I was thrilled to get to be a part of the Holy Spirit's movement last night.” – veteran campus minister

Several of my friends are reading Collins' book and say that it is the easiest book they have read about complex scientific issues. I am putting it on my reading list. But I also wanted to highlight this event at Stanford to encourage you to keep looking for opportunities to invite your friends to something like this that allow for honest and open discussion after you attend together. Ask good questions and listen. - Mary

Five Kinds of Christians?

In September, 2006 there was a national survey of self-identified U.S. Christians done by the folks that publish the Leadership Journal, Christianity Today magazine, in partnership with Zondervan Publishers, through Knowledge Networks, specialists in attitudinal and behavioral research The results are reported in the Leadership Journal Fall, 2007 issue and also found on the Christianity Today website in an article called "Leader's Insight: A Broad and Diverse Bloc." (see http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2007/cln71105.html). I believe this can help us understand the disparity of those who call themselves Christian in America. There are basically five distinct categories in this survey:

1. Active Christians (19%) - believe salvation comes through Jesus, read the Bible, go to church, and feel obligated to share their faith.

2. Professing Christians (20%) - also believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ, focus on a personal relationship with God/Jesus, less involved with church (both attending and serving) and less committed to Bible reading or sharing faith.

3. Liturgical Christians (16%) - predominantly made up of Catholic and Lutheran backgrounds, who are regular church goers, have a high level of serving activity in the church and community and recognize the authority of the church.

4. Private Christians (24%) - this is largest and youngest segment who believe that if you believe in God and do good things that God accepts you; these folks own a Bible but don't read it, have spiritual interest but don't have an interest in church or leadership there.

5. Cultural Christians (21%) - aware of God, but little personal involvement with God nor hardly any outward religious behavior or attitudes; they believe there are many ways to God and don't view Jesus as essential to salvation.

The article in the Leadership Journal provides some excellent advice to believers on how to respond to this new information. It says "instead of trying to win underchurched people back to a traditional church context, leaders say the approach to bringing private, cultural and non-Christians in the church is relational and outward-looking rather than programmatic and inward-focused....many Christians who are not involved in traditioanl churches are much much more interested i personal connection. The ways in which they nourish their faith are through home churches or one-on-one Bible study or non-church related small groups." This is yet more example out there that points to the increasing demand for small groups for spiritual seekers. I hope this article and research is an encouragement to you. - Mary

Our Country's Christian Heritage Defended

The U.S. holiday celebration of Thanksgiving is one of the most telling signs of America's Christian heritage of all the national holidays. Although you can read of its origins back at the time of pilgrims giving thanksgiving to God dating back to 1607, the first actual celebration is historically commemorated in 1621. The practice of giving thanks to God spread throughout the colonies and in 1789 President George Washington started a national tradition of offering a day of Thanksgiving to God with his proclamation:

"WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me 'to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.'....Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation..."

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave this speech: ""It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God: to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon: and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

And yet, back in August 2007, there was a L.A. Times Op-Ed article entitled: "America's Unchristian Beginnings?" subtitled "Founding Fathers: Despite preachings of our pious Right, most were deists who rejected the divinity of Jesus."

Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason ministries wrote an excellent article to address this unproven claim that is worth checking out at http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5097. I would encourage you to put a bookmark on your browser to regularly check out Stand to Reason's website for contemporary apologetic issues that are addressed well from a Biblical Worldview. Isn't it good to know that we have excellent partners in the gospel that can help us think through some of these common attacks on Christianity and rewrites of history? - Mary

At the California Christian Apologetic Conference last Friday, Sean McDowell, the opening speaker for the conference and a great young apologist (he can't be more than thirty years old at the most!), said that (according to Barna Research) only 9% of evangelical Christian adults and 2% of all teens have a Biblical worldview! Which means that 91% of evangelical Christian adults and 98% of all teens DON'T have a Biblical worldview! I am assuming that the numbers are close to 0% for unbelievers.

How we view the world (our worldview), affects the way we live. Sean drew a triangle with four layers representing the components of a belief system. The top layer, or the tip of the triangle (kind of like an iceberg, which is usually all you will see of that frozen mass in the ocean) are behaviors. What drives our behavior is our values, which is the next lower layer of the triangle. Our values stem from our worldview. At the foundational base of the triangle which drives EVERYTHING above it (our worldview, values, and ultimately our behavior) are RELATIONSHIPS. That's why relationships are so important in evangelism. The old addage of "people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care" is true today. But when they know you care, they may be interested in your worldview as exhibited in your everyday behavior.

Sean also cited a statistic that 32% of unbelievers left the faith of their youth because of intellectual skepticism. Isaiah 1:18a reminds us that God wants us to use our intellectual reasoning abilities in figuring out what we believe: “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD."

The dinner on Friday night (Sept. 7) with Lee Strobel and seeker small group leaders provided all of us with a more intimate gathering to get to know Lee and each other. Lee was gracious, engaging, funny, and inspiring in his passion for reaching the unchurched through reason and truth seeking. Our hope was that there leaders would have a chance to network with one another. I heard a story the next day of one leader that came feeling somewhat discouraged because her co-leader had moved away. She happened to sit at a table with two women that might end up being new co-leaders with her in leading a seeker small group.

The entire apologetic conference on Friday night and all day Saturday was filled with excellent speakers and workshops. Apologetics seeks to provide the rational behind the truth claims of Christianity. Some of the greatest apologists of our age were at that conference sharing their ideas. Shawn Hayes the founder of this conference and Stand for Truth mininstry says this in his opening comments of the program: "Today more than ever, truth is introduced as eing realtive, God, as irrational, and the Bible , as being irrelevant. Why do apologetics? Because it is not only important to know WHAT you believe, but also WHY you believe it. Because the more you know about God, the more intimate in your relationship you will grow with him."

Maybe next year you'll consider joining us? In the meantime, continue to understand what you believe and why. It wil come in handy in all your relationships. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." - Mary

Be Prepared to Give An Answer

In 1 Peter 3:15, Peter advises the readers of his letter: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

I have two Eagle Scouts in my family. The motto for all Boy Scouts is simply this: "Be Prepared!" In addition to the tremendous amount of fun that boys have by being a scout, scouting is a continual process of training boys to be prepared for almost any circumstance that they will encounter in life. Long before they get to the stage of plannning and implementing an Eagle Scout project (as they approach the end of their high school years), boy scouts earn badges for different life skills such as first aid, bike safety, cooking, boating, wilderness survival, etc. These life skills become useful and many times essential to the wholistic health (or survival) of a young man in his adult years. It's been true for my husband, Paul, and I have already seen fruit of it in my new Eagle Scout son, David.

As we all begin to be more intentional in our outreach to our unchurched neighbors and friends, we also need to be prepared for those moments when we are given the opportunity to give a reason for the hope we have in Jesus Christ. There are books we can read, conferences we can attend, people that can teach us, and internet resources that can all contribute to our preparedness, much like a boy scouts' life skill badges. Maybe these resources become our spiritual life skill badges long (or not so long) before we need them?

Over the upcoming weeks we'll be discussing some of these great resources in more detail. As you lead a seeker small group, it is essential that you are prepared to give an answer when the opportunity presents itself. And we know WHO it is that will present those opportunities to us: the Holy Spirit. Will you be ready?
- Mary

Are You An Apologist?

Are you an apologist? According Matthew Slick the founder of the CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS & RESEARCH MINISTRY (check his website out at http://www.carm.org), "Apologetics is the attempt to make a defense for the Christian faith. If you do that in any way, then you are an apologist. In fact, you are commanded to be an apologist by Peter: "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence," (1 Pet. 3:15).

Slick says, "If God commands you to make a defense, then He is commanding you to be an apologist. So you are, whether you like it or not, called to be an apologist. But don't worry. God is not in the habit of sending people to accomplish His will without equipping them. The word 'apologetics' comes from the Greek word "apologia," pronounced, 'ap-ol-og-ee’-ah.' It means, "a verbal defense." It is used eight times in the New Testament: Acts 22:1; 25:16; 1 Cor. 9:3; 2 Cor. 7:11; Phil. 1;7; 2 Tim. 4:16, and 1 Pet. 3:15. But it is the last verse that is most commonly associated with Christian apologetics."

He continues, "Therefore, Christian apologetics is that branch of Christianity that deals with answering any and all critics who oppose or question the revelation of God in Christ and the Bible. It can include studying such subjects as biblical manuscript transmission, philosophy, biology, mathematics, evolution, and logic. But it can also consist of simply giving an answer to a question about Jesus or a Bible passage. The latter case is by far the most common and you don’t have to read a ton of books to do that."

So you are an apologist. May God equip you to mak a "defense" to everyone who you encounter with gentleness and reverence. The real challenge is to give a defense without being defensive! We are less defensive when we are equipped. In Eugene Peterson's book, The Message, he gives us this wonderful translation of the 1 Peter 3:15 verse:"Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy."